Drinking the Yaterade - Season 87 Predictions
by AST1N | 1 year ago | 0 Comments
Normally, I start these articles with a fun little monologue to set the mood. However, this round I am going to do something different. Coach Astin recently won the Super Bowl, and he asked if he could borrow my platform to send a message. And of course I am allowing him to! (He may have also given me an undisclosed payment that I will not speak of, as I am not claiming it on my taxes).
“When I joined RedZone in Season 32, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. In my mind, I would just take a team, schedule and play games, and see how I could hold up against unknown competition across the nation. I took over a very poorly ran Bills team, and my first season and a half was rocky. It didn’t help that at the time mid-cycle, I was running with a 37-year old Phillip Rivers with 84 THP. I still recall after my first game in the league (against Moji of all people!), he would later jump on his 1-2-3 Boys podcast and give a breakdown of my game, and I can still remember him making the comment “well he seemed to touch pass every throw”, in which I was yelling at my speakers “ITS NOT MY FAULT MY QB HAS A NOODLE ARM!” Things were rocky, but I did not give up, especially after my wife saw some beat downs and asked “Do you need more practice or something?”
I stayed resilient to the beat downs, and spent hours upon hours in practice mode figuring it all out. [New guys or those who might be struggling – THIS IS THE BEST THING YOU CAN DO TO GET BETTER. Put it on random plays for both sides of the ball, and get used to reading defenses, finding weak spots, and seeing how different plays react to different coverages.] So why did I want to put in the effort? I was starting to realize something about this random league. This league was more than just guys scheduling Madden games. I wanted to stick around, and I wanted to prove myself.
Fast forward 56 seasons later. I just celebrated my 10th Super Bowl, and I am currently in the airport about to fly across the country to meet up with some of the guys I have known for years. Again I am reminded what I learned early in my time here. This is more than Madden.
(And to those who are wondering, the 10th win is still just as sweet of a feeling as the first.)”
- Coach Astin
AND WE ARE BACK. And now Fieldy doesn’t have to write as many words this time around! Now to the recap!
A Little Help From the Chat?
[Insert image of Longville saying he was gonna beat the Giants]
Thanks for the material Longville.
This won’t happen.
Field is 1/1 in this article so far.
NEEEEEEXT.
The Giants won 27-24. A little too close for comfort, but a dub is a dub.
Bippity-Boppity-Boop
The Los Angeles Rams have been the Cinderella story thus far through this season, amassing a 3-3 start, including impressive wins over the Chiefs and Chargers, and remaining competitive in two of the others.
However, I am not in on this fairy tale story. While it is a huge step up for Baker from where he was when he joined the league, I don’t think it is sustainable. He does have what I would consider a lot of winnable games on the schedule (Saints, Seahawks, Cowboys, Broncos, and Cardinals?), I think he caps out at about 6 wins max. Sure, this is a big step up, and hopefully he can keep the momentum going season by season, but I don’t think it is his time yet.
I don’t know if you can see this from there, but there is a lot of egg on my face right now. Let me tell you one thing about these articles. I absolutely LOVE when I get a prediction wrong when someone outperforms my expectations in a positive way. It is so much better than when I am like “Hey this team will win 13 games!” and then finishes 5-12. Baker proved me wrong, going 11-6 winning games I didn’t think he had in him, and now we see if it was a fluke or if he will continue being successful moving forward. The bar has been raised.
Boston Cream Pie
Did I just include Cream Pie into my header, not only because it fits with Boston and where the Patriots are theoretically located, but also because it’s Kevin coaching the team and he would insist on having a sexually themed header? Absolutely.
So let’s talk about these Patriots. Who would have guessed they’d start the season 4-2? Put your hands down, you liars. Like Baker, it has been nice seeing teams take a step up who normally haven’t been showing signs of success, but also similarly, I think he is about to hit rough waters ahead. My prediction here? He finishes out the season going 2-9. Hope you have a protection on, Kevin. I MEAN A LIFE VEST FOR THE ROUGH WATERS AHEAD. THAT’S ABSOLUTELY ALL I MEANT.
Patriots finished 5-12, and some of that can be thanked for Kfox checking out and eventually leaving his post. Close enough. You didn’t think I would get back to back “this team will stink” picks wrong, did you?
Sleeping Giant
Not the hottest of takes, but I think VC and the Giants come out strong this season, and really push to become a leader in the NFC. I think he goes at least 14-3 this season, which in the NFC doesn’t mean much :cryface:. I would say he has the best defensive weapons in the league, and as long as Dexter Lawrence stays upright, he’s wrecking the game. This is your notice, Red Zone.
The Giants started 8-1, VC went on vacation, and never returned. I think that is good enough to say I was kinda right. Now if I predicted him to disappear after 9 games and on an 8 game winning streak, I would really impress some folks, I am sure.
RZ2K
I hope this article doesn’t get banned by Gort for that header. I think this is the season we see a player get 2,000 yards SOLELY on the ground or SOLELY through the air. DeAngelo Harvin might be the guy (if BM can keep his hands on the wheel and control himself in the process), Rashee Rice has a shot, and you can’t count out a handful of other guys who are a big game away from shooting to the top of the list. I don’t think it will be a running back getting that many rushing yards, but you never know.
Rashee Rice was the closest, getting 1,821 receiving yards in the regular season. If you count his two playoff games, he broke 2k. DO YOU SEE ANYWHERE THAT SAYS IT HAS TO BE REGULAR SEASON YARDS??
Season 86 Offensive Rookie of the Year: QB Cody Jackson, NYG
I think at the end of the day, it will become a two-player race between Jackson and Vikings QB Malik Hancock, but I trust the Giants passing the ball a tad more, and I like his schedule more. There will be a couple of offensive weapons who get nominated, but QBs trump any skill position players, when used properly.
I did not anticipate Panthers HB Quincey McLean to get the workhorse load for the team, as I thought they might split things more evenly between him and 24 year old Forrest Cleary. Also thought VC was gonna be here long term.Welp.
Season 86 Defensive Rookie of the Year: LB Derek Thomas, KC
I am sure I will get this wrong. Does Doni have any rookie pass rushers that are gonna come in out of nowhere and get 15 sacks and steal the award?
LOL Doni…. That’s a can of worms we won’t get into in here. Bobby Adkins was Mr. DoItAll on defense for the Panthers, and these duo of 2nd year players should help lead this team until they are eventually replaced by younger guys looking to win more awards. *SHOTS SHOTS*
Season 86 Offensive Player of the Year: WR Rashee Rice, KC
[Trying to avoid picking a QB here] I think he and DeAngelo Harvin both have good cases, but the voters will feel better giving Rice the votes because Adel just “does it the right way”. Right? White? I can’t remember the exact verbiage they use, but it’s something like that.
I shoulda took the QB. However, Rice outdid Harvin for 3rd place, proving my intuition about the two was accurate.
Season 86 Defensive Player of the Year: S Minkah Fitzpatrick, KC
At least he’s making the playoffs this time he’s earning the award. Sure, Jaelan Phillips has 11 sacks thus far, but it feels slimy giving that to him when he’s skirting SubDT rules to pass rush from inside.
HEY LOOK AT ME! DPOY is typically one of the hardest ones to get correct, but I hit the nail on the head on this one.
Season 86 Most Valuable Player: QB Tua Tagovailoa, TEN
I wanted to lean towards guys like Mahomes, Lance, or even a sneaky picks in Rashee Rice and Theo Pendleton, but I look at the start for Tua, and even though he hasn’t been asked to do much thus far, he has been very, very successful with it. Throw in the opinion that what I consider the AFC the weaker conference, he should be able to continue the success, and has debatably one of if not the best WR groups in the league to throw to.
Shoutout to me for calling out Rice and Pendleton as the two non-QBs (who finished 3rd and 2nd in voting), but I picked the wrong QB. Tua had a good year, just not as good as Justin Fields (and we saw that in action in the last game of the year).
It has been refreshing the past few season often seeing MVP and OPOY going to different guys, and I hope that’s the case.
It was not the case. Refreshing as mud.
Season 86 Super Bowl Prediction: New York Giants 31, Jacksonville Jaguars 24
(Pssst… Field. You picked the two top teams last season and you finally got it right. What the hell are you doing???)
New year, new Field.
At least I didn’t pick Bucs or Chiefs. One team folds to adversity in chat, and the other folds in big games. Honestly, great call on my part.
Update: Just landed in NYC. It’s 6:22am. My body says it’s 4:22am. These predictions might be shit.
Flying High in 6K Resolution
Yep. The goal was to make defenses better with some adjustments. Now we speculate…. Did making them better actually make them worse? Does better coverage mean more open spots in the field? Maybe. But now there is speculation – Will a QB throw for 6,000 yards in the regular season?
No. However, this doesn’t mean they won’t be close. A QB would have to average 352 yards per game, which isn’t too crazy. However, to do that 17 times while dodging a 3PS or injury, or even just a rough game passing is also a challenge. I would speculate we may have someone flirt with 5,700-5,800 yards, but just pull up short.
Buy! Buy! Then Sell! Sell!
With the Cowboys sitting at 6-1 (good hell this article took forever to write itself), one must ask “Are the Cowboys real?” My answer is: Yeah, kinda. With impressive wins against Adel and King John, they have to be, right? Well, those are the only challenges they have faced thus far, and they also had a loss against Andy. But the good news with all this is they have a nice looking schedule remaining, and I expect them to run away with the NFC East title. Will they survive the playoffs? Probably not, so sell before all the value is lost at the end of the season. Should still be a nice story. I am sure none of the Sister Kissers will be riding his coattails in the playoffs as the rest of them watch from home.
All Charged Up
Don’t look now, but the Chargers are currently in first place in the AFC West, sitting at 5-1. Ramesu hasn’t had a bad cycle by any means, but he is overshadowed by the Chiefs every season. This team he inherited was ancient and had some really bad contract situations to deal with early on in the cycle, but those are now in the past and the excuses have to go to. It’s time to show up or shut up. Will this be the season to get over the hump?
I’d say not quite yet. They currently sit with the #1 scoring defense, so that has to amount to something, right? Welllllll…. Outside of the beatdown they received from Moji and the Titans, 4 of the other 5 games they have played were against teams with 2 wins or less. They are also middle of the pack on offense, and bottom 5 in passing yards per game. In this day and age, you need to be able to win shootouts, and I don’t know if they can keep up with a high scoring KC battle. I hope I am wrong, as the AFC could use more contenders.
“And with the 1st pick in the Season 88 draft, the ______ selects…”
Patriots. I hear it’s hard to win games when you don’t play your games.
X Gon Give It To Ya
What’s this prediction, you may ask? Well it’s not a prediction. It’s a rant instead. Twitter (also known by dweebs as X) is free. For now. So why am I making this plug? HB DeAndre Gore, the all-but-forgotten son of Frank, is currently leading the league in rushing yards. Did you all know that? Do you even know what team he plays for? He must be a rookie, right? Nope. Apparently he’s the lead back in Dallas, and he is in year 3. And I had no idea who the kid is. Selfless plugs on Twitter about guys you love not only helps show the passion to the league, but helps build a world of immersion. Let me tell you, if I had Frank’s son, you’d all know. Buy into world building in Red Zone if you haven’t before, you might find out you really like it.
Season 87 Offensive Rookie of the Year – WR Chris Reyes, Cleveland Browns
While I know this league loves quarterback stats, Reyes has been Kelly’s best friend since joining the team, and I don’t think he let’s up. Reyes will probably end around 1,300 receiving yards and 12 tuddies, the league will still vote for QB Alex LeClair in Detroit. (Nobody is voting for Chris Reyes’ brother, Manuel, the QB for the Bengals. Call it Pat QB Shuffle fatigue.)
Season 87 Defensive Rookie of the Year – DL David Simmons, CLE
Simmons was the “sit in my office while I tell you about this guy in the draft who is really smart” of last season, and thus far he is already at 9 sacks. He is doing this while surrounded by George Karlaftis and Myles Garrett on each side of him. On a side note, the Ravens currently have the top 3 rookies in tackles. They also have a player with a personal favorite name of Manu Aragon as one of those top tacklers. I hope to see his name more throughout the cycle.
Season 87 Offensive Player of the Year – QB George Curran, San Francisco 49ers
The Curran Cannon is ready to reclaim his spot at the top of the QB world. When I predicted my top passer for the year, he is the guy at the top of my list to do it. Bombs away.
Season 87 Defensive Player of the Year – DE Maxx Crosby – Las Vegas Raiders
What the hell. Seriously. What. The. Hell. He has 18 sacks. Just. How. Can you guys just block him? That’s all I ask. Keep a guy in to save your QB. Ugh. WhatHappenedToTheGameILove.jpg
Season 87 Most Valuable Player - QB George Curran, San Francisco 49ers
He is going to put up cycle-best QB stats. Crosby might get some votes, but the Raiders need to win some games to make it show the value part of “valuable”.
Season 87 Super Bowl Prediction – San Francisco 49ers 37, Tennessee Titans 36
Would be a fun one to watch. Much better than something like a Bears-Chiefs game. Let’s give the people what they want!